The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-08-19
THE STORY IN ETAIL
Graphic Account of the Most Horrible Rail
road Accident of Modern Times.

Graphic Account of the Most Horrible Rail
road Accident of Modern Times.
FOREST, Ill, Aug. 11.-Al the railway hOr-
rors in the history OF this country were sur
passed three-miles east of Chatsworth last
night, when an excursion train on the To-
ledo, Peoria 4 Western road dropped
through a burning bridge and over one hun-
dred people were killed, and four times that
number more or less badly injured. The
train was composed of six sleeping cars. six
day coaches and chair cars and three bag
gage cars 1t was carrying 900 passengers,
all eXcurslouists, and was bound for Ma
CARA Falls. The train had been made up all
along the line of the Toledo, Peoria & West
ern road, and the eXcursioDists hailed from
various points in Central Illinois, the bulk of
them, however, coming from Peoria. Some
of the passengers came from Canton, from
Ell PaSO, Washington and, in fact, all sta
tons along the line from as far west as Bur
lingtou and Keokuk, Iowa A special and
cheap rate had been made for the ex-
c%ursion, and all sorts of people took
advantage Of it When tie train
drew out Of Peoria at 8 O'clock last
evening, it was loaded to It's uUmos
capacity. Every berth in the six sleepers
was taken, and the day cars carried sixty
people each. The train was so heavy that
two engines were hitched to it. and when it
passed this place it was an hour aud a half
behind time. Chatsworth. the next station
east of here, is six miles off and the run
there was made in seven minutes, so the ter
rible momentum of those fifteen coaches
and two heavy engines shooting through
space at the rate of a mile q minute can be
understood. No stop was made at Chats
worth, and on and on the heavy train with
its living freight sped through the darkness
of the night. Three miles east of Chats
worth there is a little slough and where the
railroad track crosses a run about ten feet
deep and fifteen feet wide Over this was
stretched an ordinary wooden trestle bridge,
and as the excursion train came laundering
down on it what was the horror of the en-
gineer on the front engine when he saw that
this bridge was afre! Right up before his
eyes leaped the bright flames, and the next
instant he was among them. There was
NO CHANCE TO STOP.
Had there been warning, it would have
taken half Il mile to stop that onrushing
mass of wood, iron aad humanity, and the
train was within one hundred yards of the
red-tongued messengers of death before
they flashed their fatal signals into the en-
gineer's face. But he passed over in safety.
the first engine keeping the rails AS it
went over the bridge fell beneath it, and it
could only have been the terrific speed of
the train which saved the lives OF the en-
gineer and his fireman. But the next en-
CINE went down, and instantly the deed of
death was done. Car crashed into car;
coaches piled one on top of the other, and in
the twinkling Of an eye nearly one hundred
people found instant death and fifty more
were SO hurt they could not live. AS for the
wounded, they were everywhere. On!y the
sleeping coaches escaped, and as toe startled
and half-dressed passengers came tumbling
out of them they found such a scene of
death as is rarely witnessed, and such work
to do that it seemed as if human hands were
utterly incapable. 1t lacked but i've min
utes Of midnight Down in the ditch lay the
second engineer, MoClintock, dead, and fire.
man, Apologize, badly injured On top were
piled the three baggage cars, one on top Of
another. like a child's toy block house after
he had swep5 1t with his hand Then came
the six day coaches They were telescoped
as cars never we're before, and three of them
were pressed into Just space enough for one.
The second car had mounted of It's trucks,
crashed through the car ahead Of it, and lay
there resting on the top of the seats. while
every passenger in the front car was laying
dead or dying underneath Out of that car
bat four people
CAME Z ALIVE
On top Of the second car lay the third, and
although tltE .sss.sr did not cover its bearer
as Completely as the one beneath, its bottom
was smeared with the blood of its victims
The oSher cars were not so badly crushed.
4 h4k frAz snyawo hroIas. I'D kr~foNoIM H. ...-
conceivable way and every crushed timber
and beam fSp-ssented q crushed human
frame and q broken bone. Instantly the ar
was filed with the cries OF the wounded
and the shrieks OF those about to die The
groans of men, the screams Of women
united to make an appalling sound.
and above all could be heard the agonizing
cries Of litrle children, as in some Instances
they lay pinned alongside their parents
And there was another terrible danger to- be
met. The bridge was stili burning and the
wrecked cars were laying on and around
the fercely burning emberA Everywhere
in the wreck were wounded and unhurt
men, women and children, whose lives
could be saved If they could be
gotten ont, but whoae death and
Death IN q most terrible form was certain il
the twisted wood Of the broken cars caught
IRE. And TO fight the fire there was not 4
drop Of water, and only some hFsy able
bodied men who had still presence of mind
and nerve enough to do their duty. The
only light was the light Of the burning
bridge. For four hours they fought like
hends, and for -four hours the yictorr hung
in sns balance. Earth was the only weapon
with which the fire could be fought, and 10
the attempt was made to smother it out
There was no pick or shovel 20 dig IL up; no
baskets or barrows 70 carry it IN. and so,